Francois Mitterrand | president of France | Britannica.com president of France Jean Jaurès François Mitterrand, in full François-maurice-marie Mitterrand (born Oct. 26, 1916, Jarnac, France —died Jan. 8, 1996, Paris ), politician who served two terms (1981–95) as president of France, leading his country to closer political and economic integration with western Europe. The first socialist to hold the office, Mitterrand abandoned leftist economic policies early in his presidency and generally ruled as a pragmatic centrist. François Mitterrand. Camera Press/Globe Photos The son of a stationmaster, Mitterrand studied law and political science in Paris. On the outbreak of World War II , he enlisted in the infantry and in June 1940 was wounded and captured by the Germans. After escaping from a prison camp in late 1941, he worked with the collaborationist Vichy government—a fact that did not become publicly known until 1994—before joining the Resistance in 1943.

In 1947 he became a cabinet minister of the Fourth Republic in the coalition government of Paul Ramadier , having been elected to the National Assembly the previous year. Over the next 12 years, Mitterrand held cabinet posts in 11 short-lived Fourth Republic governments. Originally somewhat centrist in his views, he became more leftist in politics, and from 1958 he crystallized opposition to the regime of Charles de Gaulle . In 1965 he stood against de Gaulle as the sole candidate of the socialist and communist left for the French presidency, collecting 32 percent of the vote and forcing de Gaulle into a runoff election. After his election as first secretary of the Socialist Party in 1971, Mitterrand began a major party reorganization, which greatly increased its electoral appeal. Although Mitterrand was defeated in his second presidential bid, in 1974, his strategy of making the Socialist Party the majority party of the left while still allied with the Communist Party led to the upset Socialist victory of May 10, 1981, when he defeated the incumbent president, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing .

Mitterrand called legislative elections soon after his victory, and a new left-wing majority in the National Assembly enabled his prime minister, Pierre Mauroy , to effect the reforms Mitterrand had promised. These measures included nationalizing financial institutions and key industrial enterprises, raising the minimum wage, increasing social benefits, and abolishing the death penalty. In foreign policy Mitterrand advocated a relatively hard stance toward the Soviet Union and cultivated good relations with the United States . Mitterrand’s socialist economic policies caused increased inflation and other problems, so in 1983 the government began to cut spending. By the end of Mitterrand’s first term in office, the Socialist Party had abandoned socialist policies in all but name and essentially had adopted free-market liberalism . In 1986 the parties of the right won a majority of seats in the National Assembly, and so Mitterrand had to ask one of the leaders of the right-wing majority, Jacques Chirac , to be his prime minister. Under this unprecedented power-sharing arrangement, known as “cohabitation,” Mitterrand retained responsibility for foreign policy. He soundly defeated Chirac in the presidential elections of 1988 and thus secured to another seven-year term.

Britannica Stories Election Resources on the Internet: Presidential and Legislative Elections in France Election Resources on the Internet: Presidential and Legislative Elections in France Voters in France, which held a presidential election on April 22 and May 6, 2012, returned to the polls on June 10 and 17, 2012 to choose members of the lower house of the French legislature, the National Assembly. An overview of the French electoral system is presented here. May 22-25, 2014 European election results will be available here . In addition, France's Ministry of the Interior will have detailed results in French of the 2014 European elections in France.

National- and regional-level results are available here for the following presidential and legislative elections: Historical Background Although the 1946-1958 French Fourth Republic was a period of significant progress, in which the French economy engaged in a remarkable postwar recovery, as well as important accomplishments such as the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) by the 1957 Treaty of Rome (of which France was a founding member), it was also characterized by a lack of stable leadership: from 1946 to 1958, the country had no less than two dozen cabinets, which on average lasted about six months in office. In due course, the inability of the Fourth Republic to provide strong leadership to confront a major crisis led to its demise. In May 1958, France seemed to be on the verge of civil war, as the leaders of the Fourth Republic appeared unable to agree on the formation of a new government to deal with the worsening crisis in Algeria, which had sparked a military insurrection. At the time, Algeria was under French rule, and since 1954 it had been experiencing an armed insurrection by part of the native population.

The crisis stemmed from the fact that while France had already initiated its de-colonization process, granting independence to neighboring Morocco and Tunisia, sovereignty for Algeria was deemed unacceptable, as the presence of a large number of French settlers, which numbered around a million people (but only one-tenth of the population), made Algeria an integral part of France in the eyes of many French. After all other alternatives were exhausted, General Charles de Gaulle, who had led the Free French forces in their fight against the Nazi occupation of France and their collaborators during World War II, was asked to become prime minister. He agreed to the request, with the condition that a new constitution providing a strong presidency be drafted, in accordance with his widely known preference for a strong executive. However, due to widespread concerns that a pure presidential arrangement might concentrate too much power in the hands of a single person - who could eventually decide to do without democratic forms - the constitution of the Fifth Republic, overwhelmingly approved by French voters in a September 1958 referendum, created a hybrid system with presidential and parliamentary features. To be certain, the power and prestige of the presidency was enhanced, but at the same time somewhat weakened parliamentary forms were retained.

It should be noted that while abstractly analyzed, the parliamentary aspects appear to be more important than the presidential features, in practice the regime has been for the most part more presidential than parliamentary, in large measure due to the strong personality of the founder and first president of the Fifth Republic, General de Gaulle, who clearly dominated the political landscape during his tenure in office from 1959 to 1969. Thus, while on one hand the constitutional arrangements of the Fifth Republic make the directly-elected president the leader of the nation, on the other one the prime minister, a presidential appointee, is in charge of selecting (in consultation with the president) the members of the Council of Ministers - the cabinet - and running the government. In conformity with standard parliamentary practices, the prime minister can be removed in a vote of no-confidence by the lower house of the French legislature - the National Assembly - although the constitution imposes somewhat strict limitations around this procedure. (In addition to the National Assembly, which is directly elected by the people, there is an indirectly elected Senate with very restricted powers.

If the Senate and the National Assembly are at odds, the existing constitutional mechanisms tend to favor the National Assembly.) However, unlike in most parliamentary regimes, members of the cabinet cannot simultaneously belong to the legislature. In practice, it is usually the case that the person chosen for the position of prime minister enjoys the confidence of the president, his or her task being to implement policy goals emanating from the presidency - as well as to be at the receiving end of any political fallout resulting from the implementation of said policies, since the president, as leader of the nation, is not supposed to engage in petty politics. Thus, by attempting to combine seemingly incompatible presidential and parliamentary forms (the former requiring the separation of powers, the latter the merger of executive and legislature), the French constitution has its share of ambiguities. In particular, the constitution is not clear as to what happens when opponents of a sitting president secure control of the National Assembly. However, this has been a fairly common occurrence since 1986, and in such cases an arrangement known as "cohabitation" has been developed, under which the president appoints a prime minister from opposing parties holding a majority of seats in the Assembly, and the system essentially reverts to a parliamentary form of government.

Nonetheless, successive presidents have sought to exercise an influential role under such circumstances, most notably on matters concerning foreign policy. The Electoral System The president of France is directly elected by universal suffrage in two stages of voting. All parties take part in the first round, usually promoting their own candidates. However, presidential hopefuls are required to present 500 endorsements signed by elected officials in order to secure a place on the ballot. If no candidate obtains an absolute majority of all valid votes cast in the first round, then the top two candidates qualify for a runoff election, in which the candidate with the largest number of votes is elected to office for a term of five years. Originally, an electoral college chose the president indirectly, but a 1962 amendment to the constitution established the popular election of the president by runoff voting. A subsequent constitutional amendment in 2000 reduced the president's term of office from seven to five years. Popular voting for presidential elections was adopted at the behest of President de Gaulle, shortly after France came to terms with reality and finally granted independence to Algeria in 1962.

With the crisis over, President de Gaulle's opponents sought to amend the constitution to restore the powers of the National Assembly, but de Gaulle outmaneuvered them by ordering a referendum on his proposed direct presidential elections amendment. Although the process was carried out in a manner contrary to the provisions of the 1958 constitution, French voters nonetheless approved the measure in an October 1962 referendum, by 13,150,516 votes in favor (62.3%) to 7,974,538 against (37.7%), on a 77% turnout. The National Assembly is composed of 577 members elected every five years in single-member constituencies by the runoff voting system. Candidates who obtain both an absolute majority of valid votes cast and a vote total equal to at least one quarter of the registered electorate are elected in the first round. Otherwise, a runoff election is held among candidates polling a number of votes greater than or equal to one-eight (12.5%) of the electorate; if fewer than two candidates meet this requirement, the runoff is held between the top two candidates.

In the second round, the candidate that obtains the largest number of votes is elected to office. Under the runoff system, a simple majority in the first round does not guarantee victory in the second round: in 1974, 1981 and 1995, the winner of the first round of presidential balloting went down to defeat in the runoff election. The Political Parties From 1958 until 1974 the Gaullist Party - initially known as the Union for the New Republic (UNR) and subsequently (after several name changes) as the Union of Democrats for the Republic (UDR) - was by far the French Fifth Republic's dominant political force. Nonetheless, the opposition parties still commanded significant electoral support during this time period. In the 1965 presidential election - the first held by popular voting since 1848 - President de Gaulle failed to obtain an absolute majority in the first round of voting as François Mitterrand, the candidate of the left-wing parties, put up a stronger-than-expected challenge (while at the same time centrist Jean Lecanuet finished a distant third). Nonetheless, de Gaulle ultimately defeated Mitterrand in the second round.

Likewise, the Gaullists rarely held an absolute majority in the National Assembly, and usually had to depend on the support of minor allied parties, most notably the right-of-center Independent Republicans (RI). (The only time the Gaullists won an absolute parliamentary majority was in 1968, when the French people rallied around de Gaulle following the "events of May" earlier that year - a series of widespread student riots and workers' strikes that came close to toppling the Fifth Republic.) In 1969, President de Gaulle resigned after French voters rejected a proposed reorganization of the regions and reform of the Senate in a referendum. In the ensuing presidential election, Georges Pompidou, who had been de Gaulle's prime minister from 1962 to 1968, easily defeated centrist Alain Poher; the left, badly divided, failed to make it to the runoff election. Under Pompidou, the Gaullists, which had initially sought to portray themselves as being neither left-wing nor right-wing, turned to the right.

Meanwhile, in 1971 François Mitterrand took over the moribund Socialist Party (PS); under his leadership, the party staged a remarkable comeback in the 1973 National Assembly election, in which the Gaullists suffered heavy losses to the Socialists and the French Communist Party (PCF) - at the time the second most powerful Communist party in Western Europe (after Italy's). President Pompidou died in office in 1974, and in an early presidential election, a significant number of Gaullists, led by Jacques Chirac, supported Independent Republican candidate Valéry Giscard d'Estaing over UDR candidate Jacques Chaban-Delmas (who had been prime minister under Pompidou from 1969 to 1972). In the first round, François Mitterrand, the joint PS-PCF candidate, topped the poll with a clear plurality but fell short of an absolute majority. As it turned out, Giscard, who had come in a strong second place - well ahead of Chaban-Delmas, who fared poorly in the election - went on to defeat Mitterrand in the runoff vote by a very narrow margin.

Upon assuming office, President Giscard appointed Chirac as prime minister. However, in 1976 Giscard clashed with the ambitious Chirac, who was forced to resign as head of government; he was replaced by Raymond Barre. Chirac then established the neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) as the successor of the UDR, and in 1977 secured a power base when he was elected to the revived office of mayor of Paris. Meanwhile, Giscard brought together the Independent Republicans and several centrist parties under the Union for French Democracy (UDF) coalition, and in the 1978 National Assembly election, RPR and UDF secured a comfortable majority - in no small measure because the Socialist and Communist parties had broken off their electoral pact shortly before the event. In the 1981 presidential election, President Giscard won the largest number of votes in the first round of voting, with a slight plurality over Mitterrand, the candidate of the Socialist Party; the RPR's Jacques Chirac arrived in third place and Georges Marchais of the Communist Party came in fourth, scoring an unexpectedly poor showing when compared to previous PCF results.

However, in the second round Mitterrand secured solid support from the Communists and prevailed over incumbent President Giscard, who received only lukewarm support from Chirac. After taking office, President Mitterrand called a snap parliamentary election, in which the Socialists won an absolute majority in the National Assembly and subsequently formed a coalition with the Communists (even though their support wasn't needed at the time to keep the government in power). In this manner, the left assumed control of government for the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic, after twenty-three years of center-right political hegemony. At this juncture, the French political system appeared to be evolving in the direction of two-pole, multi-party politics dominated by RPR and UDF on the center-right, with PS and PCF on the left. However, the rise of the far-right National Front (FN) as a major political contender in 1983-84 upset this balance of forces.

Support for the racist and xenophobic FN, previously an insignificant force, increased dramatically as France grappled with a large and increasing population of (mostly Arab) immigrants, which were perceived as siphoning jobs and welfare resources that supposedly would have otherwise gone to French nationals. The FN attracted a sizable share of the protest vote that used to go in the direction of the PCF, but it also siphoned votes from the mainstream center-right parties. Prior to the 1986 parliamentary election, it appeared almost certain the Socialists would not only to lose their majority in the National Assembly, but face a solid center-right majority in the legislative body as well. In an attempt to prevent the opposition from winning a decisive victory, the Mitterrand government changed the electoral law to a system of proportional representation (PR). However, while the Socialists remained the largest party in the National Assembly, the center-right parties still managed to win a very small majority; the National Front (which in all likelihood would have obtained no seats under the runoff system) secured parliamentary representation; and the Communist Party (which had left the Cabinet in 1984) continued to lose ground.

Faced with this outcome, President Mitterrand vowed to reality and appointed RPR leader Jacques Chirac as prime minister; the new center-right government promptly moved to restore the old electoral law. However, Mitterrand made it quite clear that he would not be reduced to a mere figurehead while being forced to "cohabit" with his opponents. As it was, the Socialists recovered much of the lost political ground in the next two years, and scored a significant victory in the 1988 presidential election by securing the re-election of Mitterrand over Jacques Chirac (RPR), Raymond Barre (UDF) and National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen (who nonetheless improved upon his party's 1986 showing); PCF presidential candidate André Lajoinie fared badly, polling fewer than half the votes won by Georges Marchais seven years earlier. Mitterrand then called an early National Assembly election, which he hoped would deliver a Socialist majority. As it was clear by then that such an outcome could only be achieved under the traditional runoff system, the Socialist government did not reintroduce PR.

Although the Socialists failed to win the desired absolute majority in the parliamentary election, they were able to govern for the next five years with the help of either the PCF or dissident centrists from the UDF. A new period of "cohabitation" began after the 1993 parliamentary election, when the center-right won an overwhelming majority of seats in the National Assembly, crushing the Socialists. Jacques Chirac chose not to become head of government in order to focus on the 1995 presidential election, and Edouard Balladur - who had been the second most powerful figure in Chirac's 1986-88 government - was appointed prime minister. However, Balladur developed presidential ambitions of his own, and ended up running against Chirac, his former mentor.

Although Socialist presidential candidate Lionel Jospin fared better than expected in the first round and outpolled Chirac (with Balladur, the National Front's Jean-Marie Le Pen, and Communist Robert Hue coming third, fourth and fifth, respectively - the latter two scoring modest gains over their parties' 1988 showing), Chirac managed to prevail over Jospin in the runoff vote by a clear (if not particularly large) margin. In 1997, President Chirac called a National Assembly election a year ahead of schedule, hoping to at least retain a reduced center-right majority. However, the move backfired disastrously, and instead a coalition of Socialists, Communists, Greens and minor leftist parties won an absolute parliamentary majority. As such, for the remaining five years of his term in office, Chirac was forced to "cohabit" with a left-wing government headed by Socialist leader Lionel Jospin. Chirac and Jospin faced each other once again in the 2002 presidential election.

However, while Chirac topped the poll in the first round, National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen unexpectedly edged out Jospin for second place in a crowded field of sixteen candidates, and the left found itself excluded from the runoff election for the first time since 1969. The election was also a disaster for the Communist Party: its presidential candidate, Robert Hue, not only lost about two-thirds of the votes he had won in 1995, but on top of that two far-left candidates - Arlette Laguiller of Workers' Struggle (LO) and Olivier Besancenot of the Communist Revolutionary League (LCR) - outpolled him. In the second round, President Chirac, supported by both the center-right and (reluctantly) the left, was re-elected in a record landslide over Le Pen, and Chirac's new group, the Union for a Presidential Majority (UMP; later the Union for a Popular Movement), which brought together the RPR, most of the former UDF and Liberal Democracy (DL; a 1998 UDF breakaway), secured a large parliamentary majority in the National Assembly election held shortly thereafter.

Jacques Chirac chose not to stand for re-election in 2007, and the ruling UMP chose former Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy as its presidential candidate. Meanwhile, Poitou-Charentes regional president Ségolène Royal secured the Socialist Party nomination in a party primary, becoming the first major-party female presidential candidate in French history. In the first round of voting, Sarkozy came in first place, followed by Royal; UDF presidential nominee François Bayrou arrived in a strong third place, but Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front had his worst showing since 1988, finishing a distant fourth, and the Communist Party fared even worse than in 2002. No candidate won an overall majority in the first round of voting, and in a runoff election between the top two candidates - the highly anticipated "Sarko-Ségo" showdown - Sarkozy won the presidential race by a clear majority over Royal. Following Nicolas Sarkozy's triumph, it was anticipated that UMP would go on to score a landslide victory in the National Assembly election held a month after the presidential vote.

However, while the results of the first round of voting favored the ruling party by a large margin, the runoff vote turned out to be unexpectedly close. Nonetheless, UMP had won a sizable number of seats in the first round, and the party retained a reduced yet substantial parliamentary majority. Both the National Front and François Bayrou's new Democratic Movement (MoDem) fared poorly in the election, but most of the UDF deputies ran under the "Presidential Majority" banner and retained their seats. Nicolas Sarkozy ran for a second term in the 2012 presidential election, but in the April 22 first round of voting he arrived in second place, trailing Socialist Party nominee François Hollande. Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Front and daughter of Jean Marie Le Pen, finished in a strong third place, improving upon her father's showing in the 2002 presidential election. However, Democratic Movement leader François Bayrou came in a poor fifth place, behind Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the candidate of the radical Left Front, which includes the Communist Party.

None of the ten candidates in the race won an absolute majority in the first round, and in a runoff election held the following May 6, François Hollande defeated President Sarkozy. Boosted by Hollande's victory, the Socialist Party went on to score a decisive victory over UMP in the June 2012 National Assembly election. Meanwhile, the National Front polled strongly in the legislative election's first round of voting, but in the runoff poll it only managed to capture two seats (out of 577). François Hollande wins French presidential election | World news | The Guardian French elections 2012 François Hollande wins French presidential election Nicolas Sarkozy concedes defeat to Socialist party candidate, who has become first leftwing president in almost 20 years François Hollande supporters react in a concert hall in Villeurbanne to a projection showing that the Socialist party candidate had won the French election.

Photograph: Reuters Sunday 6 May 2012 14.31 EDT First published on Sunday 6 May 2012 14.31 EDT Close This article is 4 years old François Hollande has won power in France, turning the tide on a rightwards and xenophobic lurch in European politics and vowing to transform Europe's handling of the economic crisis by fighting back against German-led austerity measures. The 57-year-old rural MP and self-styled Mr Normal, a moderate social democrat from the centre of the Socialist party, is France's first leftwing president in almost 20 years. Projections from early counts, released by French TV, put his score at 51.9%. His emphatic victory is a boost to the left in a continent that has gradually swung rightwards since the economic crisis broke four years ago. Nicolas Sarkozy , defeated after one term in office, became the 11th European leader to lose power since the economic crisis in 2008. He conceded defeat at a gathering of his party activists at the Mutualité in central Paris, urging them from the stage to stop booing Hollande. "I carry all the responsibility for this defeat," he said.

He had spoken to Hollande to congratulate him. "From the bottom of my heart I want France to succeed with the challenges it faces. It is something much greater than us; France. This evening we must think exclusively of France ." He said that after 35 years in politics and 10 years at the top of government, he would now become a simple "Frenchman among the French". The defeat of the most unpopular French president ever to run for re-election was not simply the result of the global financial crisis or eurozone debt turmoil. It was also down to the intense public dislike of the man viewed by many as the "president of the rich" who had swept to victory in 2007 with a huge mandate to change France. The majority of French people felt he had failed to deliver on his promises, and he was criticised for his ostentatious display of wealth, favouring the rich and leaving behind over 2.8 million unemployed. Political analysts said anti-Sarkozy sentiment had become a cultural phenomenon in France. Hollande is the first Socialist president to win a French election since François Mitterrand's re-election in 1988.

Hours before the official announcement, hordes of cheering supporters began gathering at Paris's Place de la Bastille, a flashpoint of the 1789 French revolution, where the left had celebrated Mitterrand's first historic victory in 1981. The right has held the French presidency since Jacques Chirac's victory in 1995. Hollande's first move as president will be to push Germany to renegotiate Europe's budget discipline pact to include a clause on growth. He has vowed to push growth measures to the centre of Brussels' handling of the eurozone crisis. Ségolène Royal, Hollande's former partner who was defeated by Sarkozy in 2007, said France had voted for change and a new approach to European economic policy. Manuel Valls, tipped for a cabinet post, said Hollande now had to reconcile a France that had been divided during Sarkozy's term. Hollande's victory comes after a brutal and vitriolic campaign marked by the high score of the farright Front National's Marine Le Pen, who came third in the first round with 17.9% and 6.4m votes.

Sarkozy, who had launched his campaign in February with a marked rightwing slant on the values of work, family and national identity, lurched even further towards the extreme right as he courted Le Pen's voters in the past two weeks, stressing the far-right topics of immigration, borders and fear of Islam. Hollande, who has vowed to begin his reforms as soon as he takes office on 15 May, has accepted he will have "no state of grace" leading a country crippled by public debt and in economic crisis, with unemployment nudging a record 10%, a gaping trade-deficit, stuttering growth and declining industry. France's public debt is so high that interest repayments alone account for the second highest state expenditure after education. The rating agency Standards and Poors this year downgraded France's triple-A credit rating, saying that over-high state spending was straining public finances. During the campaign, both Hollande and Sarkozy had promised to balance the books, – France hasn't had a balanced budget for over 30 years.

Hollande's manifesto is based on scrapping Sarkozy's tax-breaks for the rich and putting up taxes for high earners to finance what he deems essential spending, including creating 60,000 posts in France's under-performing school system. He has pledged to keep the public deficit capped, but for his delicate balancing act to work, he needs a swift return to growth in France, despite economists warning of over-optimistic official growth forecasts that need to be trimmed. Asked on Friday what he would do if he loses, Sarkozy said simply: "There will be a handover of power. The nation follows its course. The nation is stronger than the destiny of the men who serve it," he said. The turn-out was high, estimated at around 80%.

First meeting backs 30% wage reduction for all ministers and president, but UMP says new government is bigger and costlier Published: 17 May 2012 The two men stood together during armistice commemorations before laying a wreath together and greeting veterans Published: 8 May 2012 France's president-elect, François Hollande, and his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy attend Victory Day commemorations together at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris Published: 8 May 2012 French president promises to unite country and a "new path" EU during low-key inauguration before meeting with Angela Merkel Published: 15 May 2012 FranÃ§ois Mitterand President of France France History - FranÃ§ois Mitterand FranÃ§ois Mitterrand (October 26, 1916 - January 8, 1996) was a French politician and President of France from May 1981, re-elected in 1988, until 1995. Mitterrand was born in Jarnac, Charente. In his youth he was a staunch conservative and an ardent Catholic.

His first political act was to join the ultranationalist Croix de Feu, which he did in preference to the larger but equally conservative Action Francaise due to the proscription of the later organisation by the Vatican. Enrolled during WWII, he was made prisoner in 1940 and escaped in 1941. He reached the so-called free zone and joined the Vichy government as a junior minister, although later on he worked with the French Resistance while still holding on to his ministerial job. Almost until his death, Mitterrand would lay a wreath every year on the grave of PÃ©tain, the head of the Vichy governement and a French hero of the first World War; in 1943 he is said to have received the francisque, the honorific distinction of the Vichy regime, which he later denied. After the war he quickly moved back into politics, and was elected as representative for the NiÃ¨vre dÃ©partement in 1946. He held various offices in the Fourth Republic before resigning in 1957 over the French policy for Algiers.

In 1959, on the avenue de l'Observatoire in Paris, Mitterrand escaped an assassin's bullet by diving behind a hedge. The incident brought him a great deal publicity, boosting his political ambitions. Some of his critics claim that he had staged the incident himself. Prosecution was initiated on the issue, but was later dropped. In the Fifth Republic he stood in the Presidential elections against Charles de Gaulle in 1965 but was defeated. He turned to the French Socialist Party (PS), becoming leader of the party by 1971, following the Congress of Epinay. He stood again in 1974 opposite ValÃ©ry Giscard d'Estaing and was again defeated. But in 1981 he became the first socialist President of the Fifth Republic. One of his first decisions was to abolish the death penalty. Domestically his aims were blunted first by a conservative parliament and then by a series of financial crises, although he worked well with the Prime Minister Jacques Chirac. His major achievements came internationally, especially in the European Economic Community.

He supported the extension of the Community to Spain and Portugal (who both joined in January 1986) and in February 1986 he helped the Acte Unique come into effect. He worked well with Helmut Kohl and improved Franco-German relations measurably. Together they fathered the Maastricht Treaty, which was signed on February 7, 1992. His term as President ended in May 1995. He was succeeded by Jacques Chirac and died of cancer six months later. Following his death, a controversy erupted when his former physician, Dr Claude Gubler, wrote a book called Le Grand Secret ("The Great Secret") explaining that Mitterrand had had false health reports published since November 1981 about his cancer. His wife, Danielle Mitterrand, is a left-wing militant. In addition to his sons Jean-Christophe and Gilbert Mitterrand, he had an illegitimate daughter, Mazarine Pingeot. His nephew FrÃ©dÃ©ric Mitterrand is a journalist.

Socialist Francois Hollande wins French presidency - BBC News BBC News Socialist Francois Hollande wins French presidency 7 May 2012 Media captionFrancois Hollande addressed thousands of jubilant supporters in Paris French socialist Francois Hollande has won a clear victory in the country's presidential election. Mr Hollande - who polled just under 52% of votes in Sunday's run-off - spoke of his pride at becoming president. Admitting defeat, centre-right incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy wished "good luck" to Mr Hollande. Analysts say the vote has wide implications for the whole eurozone. Mr Hollande has vowed to rework a deal on government debt in member countries. Shortly after polls closed at 20:00 (18:00 GMT), French media published projections based on partial results giving Mr Hollande a lead of almost four points. Turnout was about 80%. At the scene By Christian FraserSocialist HQ, Paris The excitement has been building for two weeks, it was mixed with relief and perhaps some disbelief when the first estimate was broadcast. They have waited 17 years for a Socialist president. More than 350 polls published since the beginning of this campaign said he would win - still they cannot quite believe it.

President Hollande: "It still takes some getting used to," said Senator Helene Conway-Mouret. "A year ago you would never have dreamed it." A teacher and a lifelong Socialist was standing next to me as the result came in - he wept. "It's an incredible moment," he said. "Not just for the Socialist Party but for France, for Europe. " In over 30 years in politics Mr Hollande has never served as a minister. For much of his tenure as the party's first secretary from 1997 to 2008 he was seen as a consensus manager - a listener more than a visionary. Now he must lead, making tough choices to put France on the path to recovery. Jubilant Hollande supporters gathered on Place de la Bastille in Paris - a traditional rallying point of the Left - to celebrate. People drank champagne and chanted: "Sarko, it's over!" Mr Hollande - the first Socialist to win the French presidency since Francois Mitterrand in the 1980s - gave his victory speech in his stronghold of Tulle in central France. He said he was "proud to have been capable of giving people hope again".

He said he would push ahead with his pledge to refocus EU fiscal efforts from austerity to "growth". "Europe is watching us, austerity can no longer be the only option," he said. After his speech in Tulle, Mr Hollande headed to Brive airport on his way to Paris to address supporters at Place de la Bastille. His voice hoarse, he spoke of his pride at taking over the mantle of the presidency 31 years almost to the day since Socialist predecessor Francois Mitterrand was elected. "I am the president of the youth of France," he told the assembled crowd of tens of thousands of supporters, emphasising his "pride at being president of all the republic's citizens". "You are a movement that is rising up throughout Europe," he said. Mr Hollande has called for a renegotiation of a hard-won European treaty on budget discipline championed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mr Sarkozy. Mr Hollande's campaign director, Pierre Moscovici, told AFP news agency that Mrs Merkel had congratulated the president-elect by phone, and that the two had agreed to work together on "a strong Franco-German relationship in the interest of Europe". Mrs Merkel later said she had invited Mr Hollande to come to Berlin soon, AFP reported.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has also called Mr Hollande to congratulate him. Media captionNicolas Sarkozy says Francois Hollande must be respected as the new president 'Respect' Mr Hollande capitalised on France's economic woes and President Sarkozy's unpopularity. The Socialist candidate has promised to raise taxes on big corporations and people earning more than 1m euros a year. He wants to raise the minimum wage, hire 60,000 more teachers and lower the retirement age from 62 to 60 for some workers. In his concession speech, Mr Sarkozy told supporters: "Francois Hollande is the president of France and he must be respected." The outgoing president said he was "taking responsibility for defeat". Hinting about his future, he said: "My place will no longer be the same. My involvement in the life of my country will now be different." During the campaign, he had said he would leave politics if he lost the election. Mr Sarkozy, who has been in office since 2007, had promised to reduce France's large budget deficit through spending cuts. He is the latest European leader to be voted out of office amid widespread voter anger at austerity measures triggered by the eurozone debt crisis.

In Greece's parliamentary election on Sunday, voters turned against the two main parties which supported tough budget cuts. It is only the second time that an incumbent French president has failed to win re-election since the start of the Fifth Republic in 1958. The last was Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who lost to Mr Mitterrand in 1981. Mr Hollande is expected to be inaugurated later this month. A parliamentary election is due in June. Valery Giscard d'Estaing | president of France | Britannica.com Valery Giscard d'Estaing Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, (born February 2, 1926, Koblenz , Germany ), French political leader, who served as the third president of the Fifth Republic of France (1974–81). Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, 1985. © 1985 Thierry Boccon-Gibod/Black Star Giscard was the eldest son of a prominent French financier and economist and member of a patrician family.

He attended the École Polytechnique (interrupting his schooling in 1944–45 to serve in the French army) and the École Nationale d’Administration in Paris. In the early 1950s he worked in the Finance Ministry. Giscard was elected to the French National Assembly in 1956 and was a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly (1956–58). He served as the secretary of state for finance (1959–62) and was appointed finance minister (1962–66) by President Charles de Gaulle . During his first term of office as finance minister, France attained a balanced budget for the first time in 30 years. His international economic policies—among them his attempt to limit American economic influence in France—and his other conservative financial measures helped cause a recession and brought him discredit in the business and labour sectors; he was dismissed. In 1966 Giscard founded and served as first president of the Independent Republicans, a conservative party that worked in coalition with the Gaullists . From 1969 to 1974 he was again finance minister under President Georges Pompidou .

Giscard was elected to the presidency in a runoff election against the leftist candidate François Mitterrand on May 19, 1974. One of the notable achievements of his presidency was France’s role in the strengthening of the European Economic Community . He was defeated in another runoff with Mitterrand on May 10, 1981. Giscard returned to politics in 1982, serving as conseiller général of Puy-de-Dôme département until 1988. He was elected to the National Assembly , serving from 1984 to 1989, and was influential in uniting France’s rightist parties. From 1989 to 1993 he served as a member of the European Parliament . In 2001 Giscard was appointed by the European Union to chair a convention charged with drafting a constitution for the organization. He was elected to the French Academy in 2003. Among his several published works are Démocratie française (1976; French Democracy) and two volumes of memoirs.

Learn More in these related articles: Hollande Defeats Sarkozy in France - The New York Times The New York Times Europe |Hollande Ousts Sarkozy in French Presidential Election Search Photo François Hollande addressed supporters in Tulle, France. Credit Philippe Desmazes/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images PARIS — François Hollande defeated President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday, becoming the first Socialist elected president of France since François Mitterrand. Mr. Hollande campaigned on a gentler and more inclusive France, but his victory will also be seen as a challenge to the German-dominated vision of economic austerity as a way out of the euro crisis. Mr. Sarkozy became the latest European leader to lose his post amid economic upheaval and the first French incumbent to be rejected since 1981. In his five years in office, he propelled France, and himself, into a more central role in world affairs, rejoining the NATO military command and helping drive an international military campaign in Libya. He also proved to be a difficult but crucial ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in their joint effort to master the European debt and currency crisis and save the euro.

That project, however, received multiple blows on Sunday, when Greek voters sent their own message against austerity. They handed the two main parties, both of which had pledged to follow harsh international bailout terms, significant losses as they streamed to parties on the far left and far right that have opposed budget cuts. In the process, voters cast into question the ability of any party to form a government soon, let alone continue with the austerity program. For their part, French voters may not like belt-tightening, but both Mr. Hollande and Mr. Sarkozy had promised to balance the budget in the next five years. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The balance between reducing the debt and addressing popular anger is proving complicated for Europeans, and Mr. Hollande has said that he intends to give “a new direction to Europe,” demanding that a European Union treaty limiting debt be expanded to include measures to produce economic growth. Domestically, he has promised to raise taxes on big corporations and raise the tax rate to 75 percent for those earning more than one million euros a year. Calling his victory “a fresh start,” Mr. Hollande pronounced: “Austerity need not be Europe’s fate.” The vote was viewed domestically as a rejection of Mr.

Sarkozy and his relentless effort to appeal to the voters of the far-right National Front. “I take the measure of the honor that’s been given me and the challenge that awaits me,” Mr. Hollande said before cheering supporters in the central French town of Tulle, which he represents in Parliament. Mr. Hollande’s victory was narrow but undisputed. With 95 percent of the vote counted, official results showed him with 51.6 percent of the vote while Mr. Sarkozy, of the center-right Union for a Popular Movement, had 48.4 percent, The Associated Press said. While thanking Mr. Sarkozy for his service to France, Mr. Hollande said: “Too many divisions, too many wounds, too many ruptures, too many cuts have separated our fellow citizens from one another. That’s all finished.” After weeks of energetic, and at times bellicose, campaigning, Mr. Sarkozy was gracious in defeat. “François Hollande is the president of the republic, he must be respected,” Mr. Sarkozy said after calling Mr. Hollande to congratulate him.

“I want to wish him good luck in the midst of these tests.” Speaking earlier to party members, Mr. Sarkozy said that he would not lead the party into June’s legislative elections and that now, “I become a citizen among you.” He urged supporters not to give in to division, though, as he saw those elections as winnable for the party. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The French and Greek elections were closely watched in European capitals and particularly in Berlin, where Ms. Merkel has led the drive to cure the euro zone debt and banking crisis with deep budget cuts and caps on future spending. She spoke on the telephone with Mr. Hollande on Sunday night, congratulating him on his victory in the election, according to a statement by her spokesman, Steffen Seibert. Mr. Hollande has said for months that his first trip will be to Berlin. Photo President Nicolas Sarkozy addressed supporters in Paris. Credit Michel Euler/Associated Press But Ms. Merkel herself was embroiled in electoral politics on Sunday, suffering setbacks in elections in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, where her party appeared to be losing its hold on the state Parliament.

With another election coming May 13 in North Rhine-Westphalia, Ms. Merkel is not viewed as having much room domestically to compromise on the critical issues of inflation and debt limits. “How Hollande handles Merkel could make or break his prospects for the next five years,” said François Heisbourg of the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris. “He has favorable circumstances, but she has domestic politics, too,” he said, and she is seen as likely to agree only to symbolic changes in the fiscal pact — not renegotiating it so much as adding clauses about growth to it. Mr. Hollande, who may take over as president as early as May 14, will have little time to relax. He must travel to the United States for a meeting of the Group of 8 industrialized countries on May 18-19 and then a NATO summit meeting in Chicago on May 20-21, where he intends to make good on his promise to pull French combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of this year, and where American and NATO officials will try to get him to change his mind. Mr. Hollande’s victory will also have important implications for the right in France, with Mr.

Sarkozy’s party already split between the prime minister, François Fillon, and the Sarkozy-like party leader, Jean-François Copé. The strong showing of Marine Le Pen of the National Front, who got nearly 18 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election, is a serious threat to Mr. Sarkozy’s party. It now must decide whether to make a deal with Ms. Le Pen for assembly seats in the second round of the legislative election; if not, the Union for a Popular Movement could lose up to 100 seats, political experts say. Mr. Hollande campaigned on “change” and a more traditional presidency, where he would set the main course of policy but not micromanage day-to-day affairs, as Mr. Sarkozy did. For the French, “it is a leap of faith that shows there is a strong will for a different policy course, not just at the national but at the E.U. level as well,” said Paul Vallet, a professor of history and political science at the Paris-based Institut d’Études Politiques. The indebted countries of Europe are also hoping that Mr. Hollande can be a champion buying them more time to adjust.

“Some countries in Europe are banking on that,” Mr. Vallet said. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Domestically, Mr. Hollande said he would raise taxes in a drive to balance the budget by 2017. He has vowed to raise the minimum wage, hire 60,000 more teachers over five years and lower the retirement age from 62 to 60 for manual workers who started their work as teenagers. Voter turnout Sunday was about 81 percent of the 46 million registered voters, down from the 84 percent who participated in the last presidential ballot five years ago — the highest turnout since 1974. The French, voting under gray skies with some rain, expressed a sharp desire for change and a better economic future. Nicole Hirsch, a 60-year-old retiree in the working-class 20th arrondissement of Paris, said she was voting for Mr. Hollande in the hope that he would “bring the change that France needs.” Claire, a 26-year-old engineer in Paris, agreed that change was needed, but still cast her ballot for Mr. Sarkozy.

“I would like to believe in the Socialists’ sweet dream, but unfortunately, it is not going to happen,” she said, asking for privacy reasons not to use her last name. “Their program is unclear and not concrete.” Pierre Marcus, a 59-year-old civil servant, said his vote for Mr. Hollande was motivated by a hope that a Socialist government would take steps to promote economic growth and soften the blow of the crisis on average citizens. “Five years of Sarkozy dismantled social institutions,” Mr. Marcus said. “I think that Hollande will reverse French politics in terms of employment and social issues.” Sebastien Modat, 38, who works in marketing, stopped his jog to get a newspaper. “I found that Hollande had the power to bring people together,” he said. “The right was compelled to take up its traditional topics, creating tension among people.” But the main question, he said, “is how we are going to resume growth.” He voted for Mr. Sarkozy five years ago, but on Sunday cast a blank ballot.

“I hope there will be a change in mentalities and more consensus.” Correction: May 7, 2012 A Web summary with an earlier version of this article erroneously stated that Mr. Sarkozy was the first French incumbent to be rejected since 1995. The last time a French incumbent lost re-election was 1981. Reporting was contributed by Maïa de la Baume in Tulle, France, and Scott Sayare, Nicola Clark, Elvire Camus, Palko Karasz, Eleanor Stanford, Roswana Khan and Meghan Davidson Ladly in Paris. A version of this article appears in print on May 7, 2012, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Socialist Wins French Election Against Sarkozy. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

Question: Which French President was elected in 1981?
Answer: Francois Mitterrand